In preparing foods, for both home and restaurant consumption, it is desirable to form foods into various shapes and thicknesses. In order to produce molded foods it is necessary to have a device which is simple to use as well as versatile and efficient.
One piece food molds comprised of rigid materials are well known. Molds of this type are limited in the types and shapes of finished products that can be produced. Generally food molds intended for home or other low volume use are not adjustable and cannot be readily modified to suit each individual use. Typically the finished food products produced with one of these molds are all the same shape and thickness. It is particularly advantageous to have a mold where the depth can be modified to adapt to each particular use. Numerous examples exist where it is beneficial to modify the depth of the mold. Some of these examples include forming: ice cream sandwiches, meat patties, and potato patties.
In preparing such foods, it is also desirable that the mold contain some type of dislodging device to remove the molded food from the mold without deformation. Proposals for food molds utilizing pins, plates and movable inner cups have been suggested for this purpose. Usually, these proposed devices would have been unable to dislodge the foods satisfactorily and efficiently without altering the finished shape.